In France, and at the most important period of our history, Catherine de' Medici has suffered more from popular error than any oth...er woman, unless it be Brunehaut or Frédégonde; while Marie de' Medici, whose every action was prejudicial to France, has escaped the disgrace that should cover her name.... Catherine de' Medici ... saved the throne of France, she maintained [the] Royal authority under circumstances to which more than one great prince would have succumbed. Face to face with such leaders of the factions and ambitions of the houses of Guise and of Bourbon as the two Cardinals de Lorraine and the two "Balafrès," the two Princes de Condé, Queen Jeanne d'Albret, Henri IV, the Connétable de Montmorency, Calvin, the Colignys and Théodore de Bèze, she was forced to put forth the rarest fine qualities, the most essential gifts of statesmanship, under the fire of the Calvinist press.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

When we say, 'George IV wished to know whether Scott was the author of Waverley,' we normally mean 'George IV wished to know wheth...er one and only one man wrote Waverley and Scott was that man'; but we may also mean: 'One and only one man wrote Waverley and George IV wished to know whether Scott was that man.'LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

When the Prince of Piedmont [later Charles Emmanuel IV, King of Sardinia] was seven years old, his preceptor instructing him in my...thology told him all the vices were enclosed in Pandora's box. "What! all!" said the Prince. "Yes, all." "No," said the Prince; "curiosity must have been without."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

When the Prince of Wales [later King George IV] and the Duke of York went to visit their brother Prince William [later William IV]... at Plymouth, and all three being very loose in their manners, and coarse in their language, Prince William said to his ship's crew, "now I hope you see that I am not the greatest blackguard of my family."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had bee...n forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, "Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can" --and walked out of the room.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Music is of two kinds: one petty, poor, second-rate, never varying, its base the hundred or so phrasings which all musicians under...stand, a babbling which is more or less pleasant, the life that most composers live.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

This surface good-nature which captivates a new acquaintance and is no bar to treachery, which knows no scruple and is never at fa...ult for an excuse, which makes an outcry at the wound which it condones, is one of the most distinctive features of the journalist. This camaraderie (the word is a stroke of genius) corrodes the noblest minds; it eats into their pride like rust, kills the germ of great deeds, and lends a sanction to moral cowardice.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »